Board Layout

Projex is played on a hexagonal grid within a six-sided board. The number
of cells per side alternate between n and n-1 around the board. For instance,
a board of size 6 consists of 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5 cells along each edge, as shown
below:

Each cell is adjacent to its hexagonal neighbours. In addition, each edge
cell is adjacent to the two edge cells directly across from it. This means
that the game is played on a projective plane on which chains may leave the
board from one side and reenter from the opposite side.

For instance, edge cell 'X' is adjacent to cells 'J' and 'K' as shown below.
The figure on the right shows each cell's projection (denoted by lower case)
on the far side of the board.

Rules

The board is initially empty. Players take turns placing one of their pieces
at an empty point. The first player to complete a global loop wins. A global
loop is a cycle of pieces that crosses the board edge an odd number of times.

The following games have been won by X who has completed a global loop:

Ties are not possible. A filled board must contain a global loop, and a global
loop cuts all possible opponent's global loops.

We can also describe global loops in the following way: a player has a global
loop if the opponent cannot possibly connect any two opposed edge points directly
across the board. For instance, it is still possible for O to connect two
opposed edge points directly across the board in the "Two edge crossings"
and "Four edge crossings" examples above, hence X has not yet completed
a global loop in either of the these games.

Move Syntax

X moves first. The move syntax is:

projex move board# userid
password coord

Where "coord" is an empty board point in the form 'F6'.
The following command swaps the opening move:

projex move board# userid
password swap

The swap option can only be taken after the first three moves have been made.
All cells on the projective board are of similar strength, so a single move
swap is not a sufficient equaliser: